RCVS updates guidance for VN training organisations
The VN Standards Framework details the professional values, knowledge, skills and behaviours that need to be met by those responsible for training veterinary nurses.
The RCVS has published updated guidance for how veterinary nurses are educated and trained.
The College’s VN Standards Framework applies to higher education institutions and awarding bodies that set veterinary nursing curricula, the centres that deliver the courses, and the affiliated RCVS-approved training practices where student veterinary nurses carry out their placements.
As with previous versions of the guidance, this new version contains six overarching standards (learning culture; governance and quality; student empowerment; educators and assessors; curricula and assessment; and effective clinical learning) and how they can be evidenced.
The update follows feedback from stakeholders and was approved at a meeting of the RCVS Veterinary Nurses Council in February 2021.
“During 2020, accreditations and quality monitoring audits were conducted against the RCVS Standards Framework for Veterinary Nurse Education and Training,” explained Julie Dugmore, RCVS director of veterinary nursing. “Feedback from all involved was positive but reflected a need for clarification in some areas and further examples to assist with evidencing compliance.
“Since February 2021, four accreditations have been conducted against the updated standards, the results of which demonstrate a positive move towards the outcomes-based approach to accreditation and quality monitoring.”
The VN Standards Framework, approved in November 2019, details the professional values, knowledge, skills and behaviours that need to be met by those responsible for training student veterinary nurses.
This latest update considers the feedback received from stakeholders following the application of new standards last year.
RCVS Knowledge has called on vet practices to audit their post-operative neutering outcomes.
